"Volkswagen did an admirable job of dressing it up, but all of the Town & Country's ghosts haunt the Routan. The brakes are fried and make the whole vehicle shake when you get on them hard, and they aren't that great to begin with. Under even moderate braking, the console shakes violently, tossing off anything sitting on it and rattling like a paint mixer. To be fair, it handles pretty well for a minivan and the 4.0-liter V-6 is surprisingly strong. The transmission is about as smooth as they come and the ride quality is quite nice."

@Scott EvansIf that is the case I will relax my judgement from "Complete trash" to "sloppy."I know you didn't write it, but why is that not stated clearly in the article? It has obviously caused some confusion...

@ bcwells09 and adamlinkThe problem is that this is, unfortunately, normal for the Routan. As you may recall, we had a 2008 Chrysler Town & Country and it exhibited the exact same problem. The brakes on these vehicles are woefully undersized and wear out far too quickly. No brand new vehicle should warp its brake rotors in under 15,000 miles of normal driving. This is a known problem with Chrysler/Dodge/Volkswagen minivans and one that should've been addressed years ago, but here it is showing up two model years later completely unchanged. Reporting on such engineering inadequacies is absolutely responsible.

In media and jounalism school they teach you that it's a big no-no to not use the exact quotes(i.e. edit or change) from the person you took the quote from, case in point here. His words may not have been suitable in this instance but it is what he said off the top of his head. Sounds like she asked Scott and he may have not realized at the time that his words would be published, and she procrastinated possibly therefore leading to this dilemma because she needed a quote, and needed to fast.

I see in the box below that the rotors were warped. Why in the world would you allow a reviewer to write something that bad about a vehicle when it was a maintenance issue and not an inherent problem in the vehicle? Anyone reading this will assume "All Routans Have Bad Brakes." Totally irresponsible, Motor Trend.

There was something wrong with your test vehicle if the brakes shook that violently. That is not normal for a Routan. It's not normal for any vehicle. Your writer should should have known that and had the brakes checked, then written the review. I guess it's just easier to trash the product than think about what you're writing.

Now that Dodge/Crysler are using the Pentastar for their newly designed vans, I think it's time for VW to veer off with the Routan and implement the VR6 and give it a different design too. The engines will end up comparable but will legitimately offer consumers a different flavor of vans.

What is the raison d'etre? The same as the Town & Country. The Town & Country is a dressed-up Grand Caravan--and we accept it's raison d'etre. The Volkswagen is dressed-up differently, to meet the market that wants different interior appointments, ride, and dealer experience.Internally, VW wanted to establish a footprint in the minivan space before they introduce a minivan that they paid all of the engineering/design cost for. The Routan is holding a 4% market share in the category--which is twice the market share VW has in any other category.